Imavision, also known as Imavision Distribution, Imavision Productions and Imavision.com, was a Canadian company recognized for the acquisition of entertainment content for

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

distribution on retail and institutional markets in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the United States and French-speaking

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. It was also an important player in the production field, namely documentary films and

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

History

Imavision 21 was founded in 1995 by Pierre Paquet and the late Gabor Kertesz. The company, then located on Côte-Vertu Boulevard in

Saint-Laurent, Quebec Saint-Laurent () is a borough of the city of Montreal, Canada, located in the northern part of the island. Although it is no longer an independent city, it is still commonly known as Ville Saint-Laurent (''City of Saint-Laurent'') or by its initi ...

, specializes in the field of audiovisual distribution, first in VHS and later progressing to the

format. More specifically, Imavision acquires documentary,

, and film rights, edits these on DVD and then insures the

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations * Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...

of the products. More than a million videocassettes were sold in the first year of operation. In 1998, due to the rapid expansion of the company, Imavision 21 became Imavision Distribution and the offices moved to their present location, on

Saint-Jacques Street Saint Jacques Street (officially in french: rue Saint-Jacques), or St. James Street, is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, running from Old Montreal westward to Lachine. The street is commonly known by two street name, names, "St. Jam ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Presentation

Imavision 21 was the first company in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

to promote and distribute classic (i.e. nostalgic) television series from the 1950s on VHS, in particular those from the

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

archives. Since then, Imavision has relinquished the outdated VHS and has focused exclusively on the DVD format. After many important successes in DVD sales, such as

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

(most copies sold in pro rata to the world population), Little House on the Prairie (the classic television series most sold on DVD in North America), '' Alex Kovalev: My Hockey Tips and Training Methods'', Quebec classics '' Les Belles Histoires des pays d'en haut'' and '' La Petite Vie'', and a documentary film about hockey legend

Guy Lafleur Guy Damien Lafleur (September 20, 1951 – April 22, 2022), nicknamed "the Flower" and "Le Démon Blond", was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He was the first player in National Hockey League (NHL) history to score 50 goals in six c ...

called '' Once Upon a Time...Guy Lafleur'', Imavision was among the leading companies in independent French-language DVD distribution in North America. The catalog of its products contained almost 500 titles.

Organization

The president, Pierre Paquet, had over 30 years of experience in marketing, and 15 years experience in television programming and distribution rights. Imavision owned its own building where it operated, located at 1313 Saint-Jacques Street in Montreal, in the

province of Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...

, in

. The administrative office and shipping center were situated on the premises, as well as the call center, which is open 7 days a week. The company had 24 employees working in the following fields: administration, acquisition and sales, production, stocking and shipping, direct marketing and communications.

Imavision Productions

Imavision Productions started out in 1993 with the release of the VHS ''En pleine forme avec Mitsou'', at a time when the singer Mitsou was at the height of her popularity in Quebec. The company then turned towards the production of documentaries, namely the 13 episodes of the television series ''Epopee en Amerique : une histoire populaire du Quebec'' (1997) which won 3

Prix Gemeaux Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who als ...

, awards of excellence in television programming. The list of productions also included: *''

Moi j’me fais mon cinéma Moi or MOI may refer to: People * Moi (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Moisés Delgado (born 1994), Spanish footballer commonly known as simply Moi * Moisés Rodríguez (born 1997), Spanish footballer commonly known as ...

'' (1999) the last film from late acclaimed director Gilles Carle *''

Une révolution tranquille Une is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. The urban centre is located at an altitude of at a distance of from the capital Bogotá. The municipality borders Chipaque in the no ...

'' (2001) *'' Boxing, What a Fight !'' (2008) *'' Jazz Expressions : 30 Years of Great Music'' (2009) *'' Once Upon a Time… Guy Lafleur'' (2009)

Partners

Imavision had alliances with Canadian, American, European and Japanese producers for the distribution on DVD of their films and television series, such as: * Avanti Ciné-Vidéo *

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

* Cité-Amérique * Delphis Films *

Équipe Spectra Equipe or Équipe may refer to: ''Équipe'' Équipe may refer to: * team, in French language * ''L'Équipe'', a French newspaper devoted to sports * L'Équipe (TV series), ''L'Équipe'' (TV series), a television series broadcast in many versions ...

* Fair-Play * Gaumont *

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

Institut national de l'audiovisuel The (abbrev. INA), () is a repository of all French radio and television audiovisual archives. Additionally it provides free access to archives of countries such as Afghanistan and Cambodia. It has its headquarters in Bry-sur-Marne. Since 200 ...

* Incendo * Les Films de ma vie * Locomotion * Media 9 *

MoonScoop The MoonScoop Group was a French animation and production company that created and published animated television series. Its corporate headquarters were located in Paris, France, along with offices in the United Kingdom and the United States. I ...

* Muse * NBC *

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

* Pixcom * Procidis * Productions La Fête * Sardine Productions * Sovimage *

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is par ...

* TOEI * Vox Populi

Insolvency

Following a significant decline in sales, an attempt was made to make a proposal to its creditors in September 2013. After its rejection, Imavision made an assignment in bankruptcy in February 2014. An agreement was reached to sell its catalogue of properties to

Unidisc Music Unidisc Music is a Canadian independent record label. The label is known for releasing rare music, that was made between the mid-1960s and late 1980s. Genres include rock, electronic, funk, soul, hip hop, jazz, reggae, Latin, disco and a cappel ...

, which subsequently occurred in November 2014.

References

{{Authority control Defunct companies of Quebec Defunct mass media companies of Canada Film distributors of Canada Companies based in Montreal Home video companies of Canada